readers.conf: problem with secure connection

[Bill Tangren]

Hello all:

I have inn 2.4.1 running on my server (which is behind a firewall). I am 
attempted to setup secure connections through the firewall. This is what 
I want to do: The newsgroups I have are all local and private. I have no 
external feeds.

I want to be able to allow *only* those who have accounts on this server 
to be able to access these newsgroups from outside the firewall.

I want to be able to use the user's system username/password for 
authentication, so that the user doesn't have to keep (i.e. remember) 
and maintain an additional password.

Right now, I am testing the system behind the firewall by setting up a 
test user on another computer and trying to get the inn server to prompt 
for the username/password,and to check the /etc/passwd file for validation.

The server, before I started piddling with auth commands, allowed anyone 
to make a secure connection. Now that I am trying to add authentication, 
all I get is a wait cursor when I use a newsgroup reader for access.

This is an example of what I've tried in my readers.conf:

auth "identified" {
     auth: "ckpasswd -f /etc/passwd"
     res: "ident"
     default: <FAIL>
}

What I would like to know is, is what I am trying to do possible?

Searching through your archives has turned up a few examples (what you 
see above is one of them), but nothing like what I am trying to do. 
Could someone point me to a URL with an explanation, or better yet, 
examples?

TIA,

Bill Tangren